• Question: can alaser power a car

    Asked by flameboy12 to Mike, Pip, Tianfu, Tim, Tom on 3 Jul 2012.
    • Photo: Tom Lister

      Tom Lister answered on 3 Jul 2012:

      I once saw a laser powered hovercraft thing, the laser was on the floor firing at the bottom of this thing and making it go up in the air. I guess you could do the same to a small car (like a toy car sized car)

    • Photo: Tim Stephens

      Tim Stephens answered on 3 Jul 2012:

      I saw something like that too. I think that they were trying to use the laser beam to ionise the air behind or underneath the craft and power it upwards. Might have been for some sort of space elevator trial. I don’t think it worked very well though.

    • Photo: Philippa Bird

      Philippa Bird answered on 4 Jul 2012:

      But you may as well use the power you put into powering the laser for powering the car. More efficient.

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